When we are building our careers, we understand that professional growth is an investment that is both professionally expected and good for us. So why should we stop growing after we retire? Imagine your life as a garden and keep growing.
Retirement is an antiquated term. When the Social Security Act was passed in 1935, the official retirement age of 65 was established while the average age was just 58. For many people, age 65 is often the goalpost people want to clear because this is the time when Social Security contributions are distributed. Some research indicates that you’re likely to live longer if you retire after 65.
We really don’t retire from life, but we are moving onto something else. Navigating this significant life transition takes time and intentional thought. Once you are in this next phase of life, growth and personal development should continue. We should be just as focused on growing for the next 30 years as we were during our 30 plus year career.
While there are numerous ways to keep growing in retirement, here are four ways to personally develop.
- Workshops. This includes places that specialize in personal growth, often targeted toward people age 50 and older, such as the Omega Institute, Modern Elder Academy, and Esalen Institute.
- Classes. What do you want to learn? There are likely classes: art, cooking, woodworking, knitting, and photography. You can take a class at most art centers. Many colleges offer lifelong learning classes through their alumni office.
- Online Learning. One silver lining of Covid was that many workshops and classes that were held in person are now also offered online or only online such as Sounds True or Sage-ing International.
- Lessons. If we had children, we likely had them in all kinds of private or group lessons. Now is our time to take lessons in what we want to learn: tennis, golf, piano, or voice. To have some fun, a professional friend of mine took ping pong lessons.
I try to attend an on-site workshop at least once a year. In 2022, I went to the Modern Elder Academy at the Baja, Mexico campus. I attended a workshop at the MEA campus in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2024. Regularly, I am taking an online workshop through Sage-ing International or Wisdom2.0. For a year, I took ceramic classes at my local art center, and I have been taking piano lessons for over a decade. For people who want to keep growing, this is just a sampling of offerings available. Since photography is important to me, I have taken private lessons. I was admiring a friend’s handmade scarf. So I decided to take knitting lessons. I even got my husband to take ballroom dance lessons and now we have been taking lessons for years.
It is important to remember that our expanded longevity may give us 30 more years to reinvent ourselves, redirect our energy and talents, and contribute to the world in different ways. But this requires us to update our skills and be willing to learn new skills.
While we are not focused on building our professional résumés, it is important to continue adding to our personal résumé. It is easy to forget that we need to continue to personally develop. The world is changing at an accelerated rate and this new life phase allows us more time and flexibility.
The key is to develop a growth mindset. Spring and summer is the time to focus on new growth. Get out of your comfort zones by becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable. Take small risks. Be willing to be vulnerable. Understand that learning new things and meeting new people keeps us positive and interested. What do you want to learn? So how are you growing or going to keep growing? How will you updating your personal résumé?
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